Charles Tucker III
Commander Charles "Trip" Tucker III (2121-2161) was the chief engineer of Earth starship ''Enterprise''. Childhood Tucker grew up in Panama City, Florida. (ENT: "Fusion") His nickname, "Trip", comes from the fact that he is the third Tucker named Charles. Being the third in the line, or the "triple," he acquired the nickname "Trip". (ENT: "First Flight") As a child, Tucker wanted to be a starship captain but his father thought he should be an engineer and his mother thought he should be an architect. (ENT: "Similitude") He was extremely skilled at taking things apart but not so good at putting them back together. (ENT: "Observer Effect") Tucker's family had a large dog named Bedford. (ENT: "Similitude") He used to take his younger sister, Elizabeth to a movie theatre near their house. He later remembered that she would "scream like a banshee". (ENT: "The Expanse") He once put a garden snake in his sister's dollhouse. (ENT: "Similitude") Tucker's grandmother taught him to never judge a species by their eating habits. (ENT: "Broken Bow") Tucker's personal favorite food was pan-fried catfish. (ENT: "Unexpected", "Dead Stop", "These Are the Voyages...") On several occasions, Tucker went on camping trips with his friends. They would spend half the night looking up at the stars and wondering what Earth's sun would look like from a distant planet. (ENT: "Strange New World") During his early childhood, Tucker had attended Bayshore Elementary. (ENT: "Fusion") In Tucker's tenth grade biology class, a Vulcan scientist who the children referred to as Mr. Velik came to teach the class about life on other worlds. Tucker, who had never seen a Vulcan up close before, was terrified of the teacher. (ENT: "Strange New World") The first dance that Tucker ever attended was at Bayshore Elementary. He knew before the event that a girl who he had a crush on, Melissa Lyles, would be there. Tucker spent weeks practicing dance steps with his brother in preparation for the event. On the night of the dance, Melissa Lyles wore a red dress and Tucker believed she was the prettiest girl there. He desperately wanted to ask her to dance with him, but he was not courageous enough to approach her. Tucker caught the girl looking at him a few times but he eventually ended up standing in a corner with his friends. Twenty years later, he still regretted not asking the girl to dance. (ENT: "Fusion") As a child, Tucker read The War of the Worlds with his mother. When he was 7 years old, he received a book about Emory Erickson, the inventor of the transporter, which he insisted his mother read every night for a month. He believes that Erickson is the reason he became an engineer. (ENT: "Daedalus") During the late 2130s, Tucker used to drive his car out to Chatkin Point and park along the shoreline and stare at the moon with his girlfriend. He later compared the size of his first car to that of a Retellian escape pod. (ENT: "Precious Cargo") Career Early Career Tucker first joined Starfleet in 2139, at which time he lived in Sausalito, a few blocks from the Vulcan Compound. (ENT: "Broken Bow", "Unexpected") After the destruction of the warp 2 prototype vessel, NX-Alpha, in 2143, Tucker met Jonathan Archer in the 602 Club. Tucker would later assist Archer and A.G. Robinson in stealing the warp-three prototype vessel, NX-Beta, in an attempt to prove to Starfleet Command that the engine design was sound. During this time, Tucker was a member of Captain Jefferies' engineering team with the rank of lieutenant. (ENT: "First Flight") Shortly thereafter, Tucker taught Archer how to scuba dive off the coast of Florida. (ENT: "These Are the Voyages...") Tucker did his survival training during two weeks in the Australian outback in a group that included Archer. (ENT: "Desert Crossing") Additional Starfleet training simulations familiarized Tucker with mind-altering agents. (ENT: "Strange New World") In 2147, Tucker was on Titan as part of the Omega training mission together with Archer. When a malfunction with Tucker's environmental suit occured, Archer saved his life by preventing Tucker from taking off his helmet on Titan's surface. (ENT: "Strange New World", "Unexpected") Assignment aboard Enterprise In 2151, Tucker first served aboard the starship Enterprise as chief engineer. He experienced existence in a weightless environment when Ensign Travis Mayweather showed him the sweet spot on Enterprise. (ENT: "Broken Bow") Aboard the starship, one of Tucker's self-appointed responsibilities was overseeing movie night. During the NX-01's mission into the Delphic Expanse Tucker was badly injured during an encounter with spatial anomalies and cloned using a mimetic simbiot, in an attempt to harvest brain tissue from the clone, in order to save his life. The clone was called Sim, and nearly attempted to escape Enterprise to save his own life, but decided against it at the last minute. (ENT: "Similitude") Following the destruction of Earth's embassy on Vulcan in 2154, Archer and T'Pol searched for the Syrrannites, who were believed to be the perpertrators, on the surface of Vulcan, leaving Tucker temporarily in command of Enterprise. With help from Vulcan Ambassador Soval, he uncovered a conspiricy in which the Vulcan High Command attempted to cover-up the bombing as well as launching a pre-emptive strike against the Andorians, who they believed had constructed a devastation weapon based on Xindi technology. Tucker warned Andorian Commander Shran and participated in the engagement between the Vulcan and Andorian fleets. (ENT: "The Forge", "Awakening", "Kir'Shara") Shortly afterwards, Tucker was infected with a silicon-based virus while part of a landing party on a planet's surface, looking for salvage amongst Klingon waste. Although Trip initially died due to the virus, he was resurrected by two Organian observers, who were watching the crew's reaction to the virus. (ENT: "Observer Effect") In 2161, after a mission to Rigel X to save Shran's daughter, the men who had captured Shran's daughter had stormed the Enterprise. Tucker gave his life to save the life of Captain Jonathan Archer, who was to sign the Federation Charter, which will lead to the formation of the United Federation of Planets. {ENT: "These Are the Voyages...") Relationships Ah'len In mid-2151, Tucker had a brief, and unintentional romantic encounter with a Xyrillian female, named Ah'len, which resulted in Trip's inadvertant impregnation. He became first human male to become pregnant, as well as the first known interspecies reproduction involving a human. (ENT: "Unexpected") Liana Tucker later had a brief encounter with Liana. (ENT: "Oasis") Kaitaama Tucker later had a brief encounter with Kaitaama, the newly selected First Monarch of Krios Prime. (ENT: "Precious Cargo") T'Pol kissing Trip in December 2154, in order to convince him of her desire to have Trip aboard Enterprise.]] Tucker's sister Elizabeth died in the 2153 Xindi attack on Earth. Tucker experienced difficulty sleeping due to nightmares about the event. He was assisted in recovering from these difficulties by Sub-Commander T'Pol's application of Vulcan neuropressure. Over the course of their neuropressure sessions, Tucker began to develop romantic feelings for T'Pol. They finally admitted it to one another in January 2154, though T'Pol later denied her emotions. (ENT: "The Xindi", "Harbinger", "E²") After Enterprise was heavily damaged at Azati Prime in February 2154, Tucker threw himself into repairing the ship, going two straight days with no sleep until Doctor Phlox forced him to take a few hours rest. Tucker was haunted by visions of Crewman Jane Taylor, a member of his engineering team that had died in the attack. He was supposed to be writing a letter of consolation to her parents, but was unable to do so, as she reminded him so much of his sister Elizabeth. Finally, with the help of T'Pol, Tucker was able to work his way through the grief he felt concerning both his sister and Crewman Taylor. (ENT: "The Forgotten") When Enterprise returned to Earth, Tucker accompanied T'Pol on a visit to Vulcan and her mother, T'Les. While on Vulcan, Tucker was forced to put his emotions aside and watch T'Pol marry Koss for political reasons. Even when Koss later divorced T'Pol, Tucker was torn as she showed no interest in rekindling their relationship. (ENT: "Home", "Kir'Shara") In November 2154, Tucker decided that his unrequited feelings for T'Pol were interfering in the performance of his duties. He left Enterprise, accepting a request from Captain Erika Hernandez that he join the crew of the new [[Columbia (NX-02)|NX-02 Columbia]], which was launching behind schedule due to engine trouble. With his help, the ship was ready to go in a few days. (ENT: "The Aenar", "Affliction") In January of 2155, Tucker and T'Pol discovered that they had a daughter that was created with their stolen DNA by Terra Prime. (ENT: "Demons") After rescuing her from Terra Prime, they decided to call her Elizabeth. But they were heartbroken when it was discovered that there was a flaw in the procedure used in creating her, and she was dying. (ENT: "Terra Prime") Alternate Timelines In an alternate timeline where Archer was relieved of command in 2153 due to an infection by interspatial parasites, Tucker became the captain of ''Enterprise in 2156 when the ship reached Ceti Alpha V with the last surviving humans. He was killed in 2165 when a Xindi assault destroyed Enterprise's bridge.'' (ENT: "Twilight") In a different alternate timeline where ''Enterprise was stranded in 2037, Tucker eventually married T'Pol. They were wed in a traditional Vulcan ceremony; it took Tucker weeks to learn how to pronounce the vows. Afterwards, they honeymooned in Cargo Bay 3, which had been filled with sand (gathered from an asteroid) and a palm tree (manufactured) by Tucker. They had a son named Lorian, but unfortunately Tucker died when his son was only 14.'' (ENT: "E²") Background Trip was played by actor Connor Trinneer. Originally, Trip's nickname was supposed to be "Spike", but was changed to "Trip" before the pilot aired. de:Charles Tucker III Tucker III, Charles Tucker III, Charles Tucker III, Charles